MEASURE BY MEASURE
Over the years I have witnessed the resolution of many guitar-related misapprehensions. These have included learning the correct name for the 'wiggly thing' on some tailpieces, which we now know to be a ‘vibrato’ rather than a ‘tremolo’, and finally accepting that the first electric guitar was not made by Fender. One misapprehension that still persists though was repeated in both the PRS and the Epiphone reviews in issue 475, and it concerns scale length.
We know Fender often uses a slightly longer scalelength than Gibson, but both use other lengths too. So why continue to refer to 25.5-inch as a ‘full Fender scalelength’ or even as a ‘Martin scale-length’? If anything, the latter is probably more appropriate. The Californian country players who took part in Fender’s user acceptability testing in 1949 were familiar with Martin dreadnoughts and Gibson archtops. All had 25.5-inch scale-lengths (give or take a tenth of an inch) and so the same was chosen for the Broadcaster. Until then, scale length had been a function of body size. All Gibsons over 17-inch wide used 25.5-inch, the same with Strombergs and Epiphones and so on. Gretsch, ever looking for an advantage, used 26-inch. It was a matter of proportion. Larger bodies meant longer scale lengths and vice versa. Guitar makers used whichever scale length worked best and it was not a matter of identity. Isn’t it time to drop the proprietary names for scale lengths? Patrick Hopkinson, via email Hi Patrick, we hear you – and thank you for adding important historical perspective to the question of why certain scale lengths were used on one model but not on others. The reason we often quote, say, a 25.5-inch scale with reference to Fender or Martin is just to provide easy, widely familiar reference points. Most of us have played a Strat or a D-28 at one time or another, while fewer players have played an L5 CES or a White Falcon. But we agree it’s not helpful to always reduce things to caricatures of a more complex picture – so the point is well taken.